This is one company that shoppers continually dogpile on, and I'm just curious as to why?

My personal experience with the company has not necessarily been negative, but I avoid them because their set up is annoying and not worth the hassle. First of all, you have to take a test before applying for a shop. This doesn't guarantee you'll get the shop, so if you don't get it, you wasted your time reading the guidelines and taking the test. The next issue I have with them is that if you pass a test, they call and text you to ask you to do shops that are almost always way out of your distance range. Then they get upset if you say you can't do it. I think the issue with this company is that they make it such a hassle to sign up for shops, that not many people go through their testing process to do it. This results in the schedulers being desperate to fill assignments and instead of posting an email with a bonus, they hound shoppers who already qualified for the shop. Additionally after you jump through all of those hoops to get the shop, the editors nitpick and ask you to redo things. It's not enough to mark yes and no on the questions, they also want you to reiterate every question in the description whether it was positive or negative. Finally, their pay schedule is 60 days from the shop. I don't see a reason to go through all that when there are plenty of mystery shopping companies that make things easy.

Dave is abrasive to some. Personally, I think that he's mostly misunderstood. I doubt he's inviting me to dinner anytime soon though.

I don't think that shoppers liked their "weird" payment method.
I don't think that shoppers got fast enough responses to the tickets.
I think that shoppers got freaked out when he figured out who they were when they were using screen names (but posting all of the details of their issues nonetheless).
I think that shoppers loved Feedback Plus and don't get that warm, fuzzy feeling from Sentry.

I understand that some shoppers don't care for our company. That being said, some of what @Siren17 posted is inaccurate. For example, shoppers are able to apply for assignments without taking a certification on our classic site. I verified this both on Gigspot and our classic ShopMetrics site.

We are hardly the only company in the industry that requires certifications. We require that the certification is taken once to qualify for a project. Feedback Plus, the company we purchased and often referred to fondly on this forum, required certifications be taken every time you applied for a shop.

Our payment timing is 60 days +/- from the day the shop is published to our client. We use bill.com to pay our shoppers.

The majority of our projects require narrative. I'd disagree with @Siren17's characterization of our content requirements that we require shoppers to "reiterate every question in the description" as this is simply not true. We also have projects with limited narrative, including a project that we released last month that pays $20 and requires 10 Y/N questions and one brief description of the interaction.

Eric,

I am interested in how you picked one MSC out when several others have much more complaints about them posted here more often?

Intellishop is regularly dissed here. Maritz issues are discussed often.

We have a number of MF haters, lately they have been quiet.

Using the Search function, very little shows up for Sentry, nothing that I would classify as hate.

The post comes across as a setup for Siren to express their uninformed opinion.

Many MSCs have tests.Maritz may be the most confusing. Many text and call, again Maritz schedulers are the most annoying to me. Some of the MSSs and schedulers I often work for do not respond to emails, direct requests, or phone calls. Sentry has links everywhere on their site to contact them, and they do respond.

If a shopper can not wait 60 to 90 days for payment, they should not agree to those payment terms; by applying for and performing shpps with those payment terms.

I actually enjoy Sentry shops. I feel the pay is fair for the work involved. I have had no trouble with editors being picky. Sixty days is more than most MSC, but that's okay with me as long as I know the payment is coming.

I like the shops I have done, I wish they had more available to me. I can fill in the shop partly in MobiAudit with responses and uploads, then switch to laptop for narrative. They don't have picky requirements on resizing or renaming pictures, they just want clear pictures. I don't find the reports difficult. I have found it interesting though, that when reports are sent back for clarification, my narrative doesn't even 'sound' like me. It becomes rather more wooden, and in the case of one shop with some inedible food, really down-played how excruciatingly awful the meal was. So now I know, tone down the descriptive terms. And at least I can find all my pay information on the site.

The only downside for me is waiting about 2 months for payment. Imagine if you were working a normal job and had to wait that amount of time. I find their shops interesting, and they pay decent.

@isaiah58 wrote:

I am interested in how you picked one MSC out when several others have much more complaints about them posted here more often?

Perhaps, and I could be wrong, it's because he understands the hate of the other companies.

I emailed help desk over a week ago and have not been provided a solution to my issue. I also emailed two people directly and had to send multiple emails before receiving a response from one person, who btw offered me no help.

It sounds like we may have dropped the ball. Please contact me at dave@sentrymarketing.com and I will research your issue.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

I emailed help desk over a week ago and have not been provided a solution to my issue. I also emailed two people directly and had to send multiple emails before receiving a response from one person, who btw offered me no help.

I like Sentry and like some of the shops. I recently did bunch of phone shops. Scheduler contacted me by text to complete few more and I did. Next day, she again asked me to do few, and I did four. I told her that I made calls and will fill out the report when I get home, which was about an hour or two later. Then I get text from her saying that she doesn't need any more call shops done. Excuse me!? What about these four that you just asked me to do and I did?! ...no response...Meh....kind of lost my enthusiasm for Sentry after that...

Wow! Time to file a ticket or what ever they call that!

Miki

I would be happy to look into the circumstances of your experience with our company. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com.

Thanks

Dave

@MikiNV wrote:

I like Sentry and like some of the shops. I recently did bunch of phone shops. Scheduler contacted me by text to complete few more and I did. Next day, she again asked me to do few, and I did four. I told her that I made calls and will fill out the report when I get home, which was about an hour or two later. Then I get text from her saying that she doesn't need any more call shops done. Excuse me!? What about these four that you just asked me to do and I did?! ...no response...Meh....kind of lost my enthusiasm for Sentry after that...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2017 11:00PM by Sentry Marketing.

I don't hate them. I have not had the opportunity to shop them. I am open to giving them a try .

I like most things about Sentry and only dislike a few things so it’s definitely worth shopping them to me. I love one of their clients and the shop is very fair pay. I also like their reports and find them pretty easy even though I do occasionally get one sent back for some sort of clarification it’s ok to me. I don’t mind them taking a long time to pay because as others have said they do pay. I have never had to chase a payment. The only thing I don’t like is the bill.com component because I updated my email with Sentry but it didn’t carry over so I didn’t get my July shop payment. I had to write in and they did say the information didn’t carry over and they are now invoicing it but it might be an issue with upcoming payments as I have more shops that will be in the next few cycles of pay. So if you change your email do watch out for that, it’s not Sentrys fault it didn’t carry over I think it’s something on bill.coms end but just wanted others to be aware.

The only narratives they normally require an answer to is if it is a negative response. They understandably want to know why something did not go as it should. That's reasonable. After I did a couple of these shops, they really are not so bad. They want narrative- but it is not excessive. When I do these shops I rarely get any feedback that there was a problem with my report. The reason I do not do these shops more is that there are none that are close enough to me that pay well enough for the distance I would have to travel, otherwise I would do the late night shop a lot more. One thing I do NOT like is that they do not allow coupons (and prices have gone up, I used to get the ice tea for 99 cents now is it about $2.50- that eats in to my profit.) I used to able to able to get out of there spending less than $9 and that is with a 15-20% tip. NOW with the drink prices higher and NO COUPONS ALLOWED- I rarely do these shops for that reason. MY SUGGESTION: ALLOW COUPONS and increase the price of the shop since food prices have gone up too. Not a bad shop though. Also allow us to us gift cards to pay.

I don't shop for Sentry because I don't like their website and I don't want to wait 60 days for payment. That is my choice. I have however, worked for Sentry many years ago in another capacity. There were a few times that Dave asked me to respond to a forum under a different name, posting positive things about the company and defend them. I know it happened on this forum and I want to say it happened on the other one "V". I believe Dave is a good business man in the sense he can make money at this job, but I also think he needs classes on how to deal with people.

I believe this post is misleading because I have not spoken to shoppers concerning posting feedback about Sentry in over five years. When I did discuss this topic with shoppers, I encouraged those shoppers who held positive views of our company to post in forums to offer a balanced view of Sentry. If you are insinuating some nefarious intent, you are misleading members of this forum.

Since I don't know who you are, I cannot comment on the specifics of any contact we may or may not have had.

@soccermom wrote:

I don't shop for Sentry because I don't like their website and I don't want to wait 60 days for payment. That is my choice. I have however, worked for Sentry many years ago in another capacity. There were a few times that Dave asked me to respond to a forum under a different name, posting positive things about the company and defend them. I know it happened on this forum and I want to say it happened on the other one "V". I believe Dave is a good business man in the sense he can make money at this job, but I also think he needs classes on how to deal with people.

It was over five years ago. I started working for you in late 2009, early 2010.

I have personally spoken to Dave. My first post here was a negative one about Sentry. Knowing what I know now, much of it learned here, I openly admitted I was wrong. Dave also admitted he has opportunities for training his staff. He has not hinted or asked me to in any way post nice things about him or Sentry.

His company is easy to identify and sign up for. Maybe that is why so many new shoppers end up working for them. Payment terms are clear. A few late payments are better than not being paid. Because he tries to be active online he ends up being an easy target, easy to troll him for some people.

My question is: I did 2 shops in August for Sentry. I see the invoice sitting in Bill.com with last week's date and to be paid out in November. So it seems I won't actually be paid til 90 days out? Does this seem right? I had not shopped for Sentry in 2 years, but have been doing 2 shops a month for them since August, but have yet to be paid...

Ah well on the pay issue I do not think it really matters when they pay as long as it is less than 90 days. I usually have more lined up that will pay sooner and some that will continue paying. Once the money starts rolling in it doesn't really matter. Just as long as I do not spend an outrageous amount to do a shop. i.e. No Motels, Hotels, Airline, or Cruise line shops. Nothing to where I have to worry about shop not being accepted and then being out what they are supposed to reimburse me.

I no longer do shops for Sentry. The last straw was when I completed a retail shop, and Sentry would not accept it. The sales person was difficult, and because of his lousy attitude, I could not complete certain aspects of the shop. Still, I completed as much as I could on the report and gave a detailed narration on what happened. That was not enough. I will not waste my time again with them.

Sentry has been fair to me.

I think the whole Sentry thang comes down to this....
" Finally, their pay schedule is 60 days from the shop."

At best, often longer....hardly every shorter.

So...work for peanuts, get paid (yes, they do pay!) a LONG time after the shop...;lus all the other inconveniences....

Everyone has to decide on which MSC floats their boat!

I wanted to post here because I know Dave personally. You will not meet another company owner that cares about his business and his shoppers as much as Dave does!

I was talking to him on the phone the other day and I said, "Dave. I sometimes wish shoppers could listen in on our conversations sometimes." You might not expect it, but we were talking about shoppers being underpaid in the industry. Dave and I have BOTH passed up business because, for whatever reason, we would not be able to pay shoppers a fair rate for what the clients were willing to pay. And then we see the shops offered by other companies for less than we would have paid. If you do a good job and are a nice person (i.e. not bashing companies on the board), Dave will go to bat for you!

While the tests may be a pain in the you-know-what, they are for your protection also. Most clients will not accept shops if instructions weren't followed. We don't want the shoppers to spend money out of pocket, only to have your shop rejected. Plus, we actually LOSE money on shops we cannot use. We usually have to pay an editor, even if the shop couldn't be used for whatever reason (since they still had to work on it). When we have to reject a shop, it also doubles our scheduling expenses. We also have to keep them in the system for future reference so we still have to pay ShopMetrics their reporting fees per visit. We would much rather have a usable shop than have to reschedule.

Being a company owner is tough. It really is. Between trying to keep clients happy, trying to keep shoppers happy and trying to deal with all the deadlines and flakes, it is really stressful! But I think the worst part of it is having to do "damage control" because someone you give your business to gets mad or doesn't like your pay methods and starts posting the boards. And it hurts. I don't know about Dave, but I take it personal (I know....I shouldn't take things personal because it is business). One thing I do want shoppers to remember is that mystery shopping company owners are actually your clients, just like the stores you shop are our clients. I'm not saying not to post about companies but.....we would never post about xyz restaurant client and how awful they are to have as a client. lol. Just some food for thought!

Okay, that's my 2 cents! I appreciate you all. And I don't mean to sound grumpy. But it's the end of the month and we are all a little grumpy this time of the month. I had 7 shops dropped back in my lap tonight.

Have a good evening everyone!

Julie Simbro
ACE Mystery Shopping

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2017 01:05AM by JulieACE.

Thanks, Julie.

This still does not answer my question though. Why does Sentry say "pay in 60 days" when they really mean payment is released to Bill.com in 60 days and then it cannot be released to my bank account for another 30?

Sorry! I don't know the answer to that.

@Dave: I didn't know that you were here on the forum and that I knew you were the owner of Sentry. I probably would have said something directly to you. If you think I could get compensated $10 for those four shops that were "canceled" in such an odd way, then great. I did contemplate putting such a lame thing that scheduler did here on the forum but didn't, sometimes you have to let things go. I erased the texts. I did about 50 call shops, probably more. Really lame thing the scheduler did but this is not what Sentry is about. I still check the board regularly, it is one of five companies I regularly shop for.
I can't agree more with Julie. I regreted posting anything on this link because the link sounds negative and unjust, especially when it's the company that you actually like and Sentry has one of my favorite clients. Yeah negative opinions and personal attacks are unjust especially when you have a proactive owner, and the company pays, and has good shops and clients